Lucy Scarbrough (born Ardans June 26, 1927 – June 13, 2020) was an American

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, conductor and educator. She taught at

El Paso Community College El Paso Community College (EPCC) is a community college district headquartered in El Paso, Texas, United States. EPCC operates five campuses in the Greater El Paso area, as well as courses offered at nearby Fort Bliss. As defined by the Texas Le ...

(EPCC), and founded the El Paso Chopin Piano Festival in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

Biography

Lucy (née Ardans) Scarbrough was born in

Encino, New Mexico Encino is a village in Torrance County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 82 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Encino is located at (34.651474, -105.462597). According to the ...

. She was one of ten children, and also the youngest. She studied piano first with her mother, then with American pianist and teacher,

Silvio Scionti Silvio Vittore Alberto Scionti (; born 20 November 1882; d 22 May 1973) was an Italy, Italian-born United States, American pianist and teacher. Born in Acireale, Sicily, he trained at the Music conservatories of Naples, Royal Conservatory in Naples ...

, and later with Russian pianist, Maurice Lichtman. As a teenager, she discovered her lifelong love of the music of

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

. Scarbrough attended the

American Conservatory of Music The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservato ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

where she earned her doctorate, and studied with pianists such as

Leo Sowerby Leo Salkeld Sowerby (1 May 1895 – 7 July 1968) was an American composer and church musician. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1946 and was often called the “Dean of American church music” in the early to mid 20th century. Biography L ...

. Following her studies at the Conservatory, Scarbrough went on to teach at the

Chicago Musical College Chicago Musical College is a division of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. History Founding Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld Sr (1841–1923), founded the college in 1867 as the Chicago Academy of Music. The institution h ...

, and there continued her piano studies with the famous

Rudolph Ganz Rudolph Ganz (24 February 1877 – 2 August 1972) was a Swiss-born American pianist, conductor, composer, and music educator. Career Early career as a pianist and conductor Born in Zurich, Ganz studied cello with Friedrich Hegar and piano w ...

, noted, among other things, for being the first concert pianist in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to feature the work of

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

. Following her marriage to Paul Scarbrough, they moved to

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

where she taught at St. Pius X High School. She also founded the Albuquerque Interparochial Choir, and served as Music Director for the Albuquerque Light Opera Company. With her family, Scarbrough moved one last time to

, where she founded the

EPCC EPCC, formerly the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, is a supercomputing centre based at the University of Edinburgh. Since its foundation in 1990, its stated mission has been to ''accelerate the effective exploitation of novel computing th ...

music department, Opera a la Carte (El Paso Opera) company, and the El Paso Civic Orchestra. Scarbrough worked as the conductor of the civic orchestra for 30 years. Scarbrough continued teaching at EPCC through the spring semester of 2020. Most notably, Lucy Scarbrough was the founder of the El Paso Chopin Festival, for which she received international recognition. In 2019, the

Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego) is a governmental administration office concerned with various aspects of Polish culture. It was formed on 31 October 200 ...

awarded her the

Meritorious for Polish Culture The Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture ( pl, Odznaka Honorowa "Zasłużony dla Kultury Polskiej") or Meritorious for Polish Culture, is a Polish departmental decoration in Arts awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heri ...

medal, in recognition of her achievements in promoting the music of Frédéric Chopin to American audiences. Lucy Scarbrough received numerous other awards during her career such as the Minnie Stevens Piper higher education award of Texas, the National Teaching Excellence Award of the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, and the Hispanic Heritage award in 2014. She was inducted into the

El Paso Women's Hall of Fame The El Paso Women's Hall of Fame honors and recognizes the accomplishments of El Paso women. It is sponsored by the El Paso Commission for Women and was established in 1985. The first inductees were honored in 1990. Inductees are women who live in ...

in 1996. Lucy Scarbrough died in her home in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarborough, Lucy 1927 births 2020 deaths Musicians from El Paso, Texas American women classical pianists American classical pianists 20th-century American women pianists 20th-century American pianists 21st-century American women pianists 21st-century American pianists 20th-century classical pianists 21st-century classical pianists